Bottled water companies
often seek out rural areas with clean natural springs to bottle
and sell to consumers. Unfortunately, they often pay no heed to
the local residents or the environment they live in. While most
small bottlers take the water as it naturally bubbles up, many large
bottlers pump out the groundwater and springs with high-capacity
wells. These wells can cause groundwater drawdown, drying up area
residents' wells (see Groundwater
Drawdown). Today, many residents are fighting back and winning.
Using a variety of methods, including legislative changes, local
referenda, and boycotting, these groups have managed to say "no"
to multinational water corporations.

"The Circuito das
Águas region of Brazil contains one of the most important
Brazilian national parks, the Itatiaia Park, known for its famous
mountain peak, the Agulhas Negras (Black Needles). The mineral water
sources are concentrated in 'water parks' distributed among 4 small
towns: São Lourenço, Caxambu, Cambuquira, and Lambari.
Towns were founded around these water parks in the 19th century,
when the water sources and their medicinal properties were discovered."
Franklin Frederick, an advocate of the International Free Water
Academy, Brazil also described some personal experiences. "About
3 years ago many people in São Lourenço...began to
notice a change in the taste of the mineral waters inside the Water
Park, and one of the most famous water sources there, the Magnesiana,
dried up and stopped flowing. Water usually needs hundreds of years
inside the earth to be slowly enriched by minerals. If it is pumped
in quantities greater than nature can replace it, its mineral content
will gradually decrease, bringing the change in taste that we were
noticing." (1)

Nestlé produces
purified water labeled 'Pure Life.' The company violated all laws
in the bottling of mineral water, when their production process
produced common water by reverse osmosis. This process changed the
natural composition of the mineral and healing waters. The huge
amount of water that is pumped nonstop to meet the industry demand
is lowering piezometric levels of the aquifers, diminishing flow
and has used up one of the fountains, (the magnesian water) to below
replenishable levels. The peculiar and discernible tastes of the
waters of the different fountains are gone, and tourism was affected
by all these conditions. (2)

In the article, Water
as a Multidimensional Entity, Frederick went on to describe
action taken by some of the locals. "... We created the Water
Citizenship Movement and collected information about production
of Pure Life. We discovered that Nestlé/Perrier was pumping
huge amounts of water in the park from a well 150 m deep. The water
was then demineralized and transformed into Pure Life table water.
As the Brazilian constitution does not allow mineral water to be
demineralized, we brought our findings to the attention of the public
prosecutor of the State Public Ministry in São Lourenço,
who began an official investigation of Nestlé/Perrier's activities
in São Lourenço. This led to charges against the company
at the end of 2001, and a federal investigation of Nestlé/Perrier.
Meantime, we organized citizen protests against the company and
collected 3000 signatures on a petition." (1)

Towns
of Newport and New Haven, Wisconsin vs. Perrier

In 2000, Perrier informed
the residents of two townships near Wisconsin Dells that they had
a plan to begin continuous pumping of 500 gallons per minute of
Big Spring into bottles (3). The company promised that pumping would
have no effect on the local lakes and streams, and that it would
bring jobs and money to the local economy. Many local people started
asking "Who needs this?" says Hiroshi Kanno, a local resident.
Many of the local residents are retirees who did not need jobs or
large trucks rumbling by. Residents got together, putting up signs
along roads reading "Go Away Perrier!". The towns even
held referendums, voting 4-1 and 3-1 against letting Perrier pump
the water. Perrier came back, giving the town $20,000, and launched
a public relations offensive; the people of New Haven stepped up
their community organizing. After the town chairman accepted the
money, the residents held a recall, voting 263-92 against the chairman.
Once the new chairman was in charge the people gave the money back
to Perrier (4).

The majority voice of
the residents was not enough. Governor Tommy Thompson and the Wisconsin
Department of Natural Resources (DNR) gave Perrier the permits it
needed to pump. A group called Concerned Citizens of Newport (CCN)
filed a lawsuit against the Wisconsin Department of Commerce and
DNR on a number of grounds, claiming that the DNR violated its duty
to protect the Public Trust, the DNR violated WEPA (Wisconsin Environmental
Protection Agency) by not adequately identifying and mitigating
significant environmental impacts, and by dividing Perrier’s proposed
water bottling operations into segments, among other objections
(5). After a year, a judge decided that the DNR had not gathered
enough data to show there would be no significant impact on the
environment.

"In September 2002,
Perrier announced that it would not seek to renew its drilling permits
in Wisconsin. The CEO of Perrier was quoted as saying that his Wisconsin
experience was the worst his company had ever had, and that the
people of Wisconsin do not appreciate a good business. Perrier has
since turned its sights towards Michigan." (6)

"...
In 2001 Perrier, which has since been bought by Nestle Waters North
America [NWNA], was welcomed with open arms by then-Michigan Gov.
John Engler, who allowed the company to open up a plant for a licensing
fee of less than $100 per year and offered millions in tax breaks
to boot. Construction started on the plant even before all the necessary
permits had been obtained. For the past year and a half, the plant
has been pumping 100 to 300 gallons per minute out of an aquifer
on a hunting preserve in Mecosta County and piping the water 11
miles away to a bottling plant in Stanwood, where it is prepared
for shipping and sale around the Midwest as Nestle's Ice Mountain
brand." (7)

"Shortly after
the pumping plan was announced, a grassroots movement of local residents
and activists coalesced to oppose the plan, on the grounds that
not only would the pumping have harmful effects on the environment
and quality of life for residents, but it would also set a chilling
precedent in selling off the area's natural resources to a multinational
company. This coalition has used both legal and direct action approaches
to raise awareness of the issue and try to stop the pumping plan.
Among other things, the group Sweetwater Alliance, which has coordinated
much of the grassroots opposition, staged a 'canoe-in' along one
of the streams fed by the spring." (7)

"In the fall of
2001 the group Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation (MCWC) along
with four individual local residents filed a lawsuit in Mecosta
County Circuit Court seeking to prevent the pumping, arguing that
it was not a legally defined 'reasonable use' of water and violated
state and federal regulations regarding water rights." (7)

In late November 2003,
Mecosta County Circuit Court Judge Lawrence C. Root ruled against
NWNA, forcing the company to shut down four high- capacity springwater
wells. This renders its already operational 700,000 sq. ft. bottling
facility in Stanwood useless. In the ruling, the judge noted “Defendant
Nestle was cautioned that it was proceeding in building a bottling
plant at its own risk should I decide plaintiffs’ claims have merit
such that there might be no water to be bottled in the plant.” (8)
Such a ruling will likely make way for new groundwater legislation,
as promised in 2002 by Governor-elect Jennifer Granholm.

Another
ongoing struggle against bottled water has been happening in Crystal
Springs, Florida. Crystal Springs flows directly into the Hillsborough
River, which is the main drinking supply for the city of Tampa.
For 20 years, owners of the spring, the Thomas family, maintained
the spring and kept it open to the public while developing a lucrative
deal to sell water and truck it to the Zephyrhills bottling facility.
"When Perrier/Nestle purchased the Zephyrhills Water Company
in 1987, things began to change. To accommodate Perrier's increasing
demand for water, Bob Thomas suggested they install a PVC pipe in
the heart of the spring to pump water underground to the bottling
plant. By the early 1990s, Perrier's plans for the spring broadened
to include larger steel pipes and pumps to upgrade their operation."
(9)

In 1996,
Bob Thomas, President of Crystal Springs Recreation Preserve, locked
the gate and closed the spring to the public. This was justified
in a public announcement saying he planned to conduct scientific
research. Others argue the reason was to keep Perrier's abuse from
public view. The closure prompted outrage and a united community
effort to "Save Our Springs." (9)

In a letter,
the Southwest Florida Water Management District, known as Swiftmud,
cited Bob Thomas for allowing Zephyrhills Spring Water Co. to overdraw
its allotment from the springs during July and August, 2000. Figures
show that the company took 5,000 gallons per day too much in July
and 3,000 a day too much in August. Thomas said the violation was
an honest mistake that stemmed from calculating the daily intake
of water on a calendar-year average rather than a 12-month rolling
average. Terri Wolfe, leader of the Save Our Springs coalition said,
"I don't believe it was an accident...I think his permit should
be revoked. We're in a crisis here. The river is dying. This is
Tampa's water he is screwing with." (10). Thomas is struggling
to get new permits that would allow the water company to boost its
daily withdrawals from the springs on his Two Rivers Ranch. One
request, for up to 1.8-million gallons a day, (from 301,000 per
day) was denied in February 2000 after Swiftmud found that such
a dramatic increase would deplete Tampa's drinking supply. (10)

In 2002,
Thomas was granted a 30,000-gallon per day increase permit. As part
of the deal, approved in April, Thomas was allowed to take 30,000
gallons a day above his current allowance (301,000 gallons per day)
if he found a suitable replacement source outside of the Hillsborough
River Basin. Now, tanker trucks carrying thousands of gallons of
well water are rumbling from Dade City to Crystal Springs and dumping
it into the headwaters of the Hillsborough River. The water is coming
from farmer Buddy Rowland's property near Dade City. (11)

In 2003, Thomas announced
plans of opening up a long-promised nature center on the grounds,
serving as a "living laboratory'' for students to learn about
the environment and why the spring is so important to Florida's
ecosystem. Save Our Springs, Inc. President Terri Wolfe, remains
skeptical about Thomas's motives. Although she is glad that the
springs will be reopened to some degree, she believes Thomas is
doing it to look better in the eyes of the officials who issue permits
to pump more water. (12)